rejected
them. Attentive to the difference of opinion prevailing on this subject,
when the term of his second election arrived, he called the Heads of
departments together, observed to them the situation in which he had
been at the commencement of the government, the advice he had taken, and
the course he had observed in compliance with it; that a proper occasion
had now arrived of revising that course, of correcting in it any
particulars not approved in experience; and he desired us to consult
together, agree on any changes we should think for the better, and
that he should willingly conform to what we should advise. We met at
my office. Hamilton and myself agreed at once that there was too much
ceremony for the character of our government, and, particularly, that
the parade of the installation at New York ought not to be copied on the
present occasion, that the President should desire the Chief Justice to
attend him at his chambers, that he should administer the oath of office
to him in the presence of the higher officers of the government, and
that the certificate of the fact should be delivered to the Secretary
of State to be recorded. Randolph and Knox differed from us, the
latter vehemently: they thought it not advisable to change any of the
established forms, and we authorized Randolph to report our opinions to
the President. As these opinions were divided, and no positive advice
given as to any change, no change was made. Thus the forms, which I had
censured in my letter to Mazzei, were perfectly understood by General
Washington, and were those which he himself but barely tolerated. He had
furnished me a proper occasion for proposing their reformation, and, my
opinion not prevailing, he knew I could not have meant any part of the
censure for him.

Mr. Pickering quotes too (page 34) the expression in the letter, of 'the
men who were Samsons in the field, and Solomons in the council, but who
had had their heads shorn by the harlot England' or, as expressed in
their re-translation, the men who were Solomons in council, and Samsons
in combat, but whose hair had been cut off by the whore England.' Now
this expression also was perfectly understood by General Washington. He
knew that I meant it for the Cincinnati generally, and that, from what
had passed between us at the commencement of that institution, I could
not mean to include him. When the first meeting was called for its
establishment, I was a member of the Co